Sex and Freedom: Second Thoughts

Here is an interesting column from The Boston Globe lamenting the impact that baby boomers' attitudes toward sex have had on their children.  It's especially interesting because the reasoning suggests an unspoken secular embrace of the Church's moral anthropology (at least on this issue):

There is a legitimate hierarchy in adult-child relationships. As grownups we need to exercise our authority in order to create a more buffered environment in which our children can find, at their own pace, sexual selves that possess the capacity for the kind of liveliness, meaning, and connection that can occur with real and respected partners. But if we are to succeed, we'll have to do more than dispense a few do's and don't's regarding our children's behavior. We'll have to undertake an honest reexamination of the very attitudes for which our generation was once so self-congratulatory.

The fact is, the sexual freedom and permissiveness in which we baby boomers once reveled has undergone an unexpected transformation, and the result, ironically enough, is an overstimulating sexual culture that now shackles and oppresses our children.

The Church might suggest that "real and respected partners" can helpfully be understood as "spouses," but other than that, perhaps we have an issue that most camps in the culture wars can get behind.

Rob